As kids our imaginations are at their most creative, giving rise to vivd, often scary and sometimes influential dreams. To this day I remember my first flying dream. It would of been around the time this pic was taken, aged 4-5. I remember it now, because at the time and for a long long while after I believed it was real. I was stood at the top of the stairs in the last farmhouse my folks owned together, I didn't walk down them, I flew. From then on I flew very regularly in my dreams, and I remember always waking with such excitement about what I had just experienced, and eager to relive it. It's exactly the same now every time I get to fly the PA38.

I believe that dream and the already burgeoning fascination with planes was triggered by another moment from maybe 6-12 months prior, that is still clear in my minds eye - It was autumn, mum and dad worked on a farm near Reading, It was hot and the dust from the freshly harvested wheat was still in the air. I watched a white glider, to me an alien looking aircraft, circle and descend into the stubble - I remember a pick up blazing across the field to collect its pilot. I remember him, jump suited, and other worldly.

Fast forward 2 years, I'm 6. Mum is taking me to Nepal, we are flying from Heathrow to Dhaka in Bangladesh via Frankfurt for fuel. The plane was a McDonnell Douglas DC-10. It is both of our first flights. Mum remembers looking at the plane from the gate and seeing rusty rivets. I remember exactly the kind of intense nervous excitement a 6 year old might expect to feel at this time. I remember the Air Biman livery and the iconic black nose - like a shuttle. I remember absolutely crapping myself when we took off and started the steep ascent, I remember mum reassuring me and calming me down... we levelled out, and immediately mum had a wobble about the whole experience - I then spent a while reassuring her that flying was fine and everything would be ok.

We flew a few times on that trip, but I was hooked by the time I saw the lights of the runway in Frankfurt.

#Aeroplane #DC10 #dreams #glider #heathrow